Our Micro Bakery
Priest River Porch Bakery
Sometimes people ask what a “micro bakery” is.
The short answer is that it’s a very small bakery run out of a home kitchen, baking in small batches for the local community. There’s no big production schedule, no giant mixers, and no delivery trucks. Just grain, flour, time, and a lot of hands-on work.
Priest River Porch Bakery started exactly that way.
Hi, I’m Sarah. Baking started as something I did for my family. Like a lot of people, I started experimenting with sourdough and trying to figure out how to make bread that tasted better and was healthier than what we could buy at the store.
At first, I was just baking for us. But I would see micro bakery stands from time to time and I love them. They are so cute and fun! I have a condition where I have to stop at every micro bakery/farm stand/porch bakery I come across…I just have to stop and see what creative things people are working on at home and sharing with their communities. I started to wonder if that was something I could do myself someday.
So we put out a small stand in our driveway. Just a cabinet we bought on the Facebook marketplace and renovated to give it some function and some flare.
It was simple — just a few loaves and baked goods set out for the neighborhood. People would stop by, grab something fresh, and head home. But it didn’t take long before that little stand became a regular part of our week.
Introducing 'the Crusty Wagon'
Over time the bakery grew a bit, winter was coming and we needed something weatherproof, so we decided to take the next step: a small horse trailer that we renovated into what we now call the Crusty Wagon.
It still keeps the same spirit of the original porch stand — small, local, and simple — just with a little more room for bread. Oh and we decided to keep the name “porch bakery”, even though it’s clearly no longer on our porch!
We’re located at 23 Shooting Star Dr, Priest River, Idaho. We’re open most Saturday mornings. For more info on how, when, and what you can order, visit our online ordering page here.
The biggest shift in the bakery wasn’t transitioning to the Crusty Wagon. It actually happened when I discovered freshly milled flour. A friend recommended a podcast about milling grain at home. What I learned that day changed me forever and I knew I had to make the transition to only using freshly milled whole wheat flour.
At first it was nerve racking to make the shift. Would everything taste too different? Would I lose my customers? Do people even know or care what freshly milled flour is? These things kept my mind spinning.
But now that I had learned that commercially milled flour was void of health benefits and actually a major contributor to health issues, I vowed to make the change for my family, and I felt my customers deserved the same.
Fresh flour. Real ingredients. Bread the way God intended.
That’s really the heart of this micro bakery and what we’re doing here at The Priest River Porch Bakery. I hope you’ll place an order and come by to try it for yourself!